


Day at the Theater

by Stardust948



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Ember Island Players - Freeform, F/M, Fluff and Crack, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Katara in the Fire Nation AU, Love Amongst the Dragons, Ozai takes a nap, Shenanigans, Ursa is trying her best, but everyone else is dying of boredom, can be read as pre-zutara, no beta we die like men, seriously, this is how i cope now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28931259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stardust948/pseuds/Stardust948
Summary: Just when Katara thought she had gotten accustom to life in the Fire Nation, Lady Ursa insisted that she accompanied the Royal Family to the Ember Island’s production of “Love Amongst the Dragons”. Nothing goes to plan.
Relationships: Azula & Katara (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Ozai/Ursa (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Day at the Theater

**Author's Note:**

> Katara in the Fire Nation AU where she was capture during the raid and brought to the palace to prove to the world that the Fire Nation can “civilize even the most salvage of people”. Gross I know. Anyway, enough heavy stuff. This is supposed to be a crack fic. 
> 
> Inspired by this artwork [https://loveofreadingbooks.blogspot.com/2013/09/art-of-day-avatar-fire-nation-royal.html] and that time my parents took me to see the Nutcracker Ballet when I was 6 but we left early because I got bored and wouldn’t shut up.
> 
> That said, Zuko is 10 and Katara and Azula are 8 in this.

Love Amongst the Dragons? 

Katara puffed out her cheeks as she tried to think up reasons why Lady Ursa invited her to the production. According to Zuko, the Ember Island actors were the worst in the whole world. Why would Lady Ursa consider this as part of her “Fire Nation culture” studies? 

Azula off-handedly said Lady Ursa just wanted to have someone else to watch the play with since she and Zuko were sick of it and Prince Ozai always slept through the whole thing. As the royal family’s new pet, it was Katara’s job to entertain their every desire.

Katara glared at the princess but didn’t respond back. She was technically right. But it didn’t stop Katara from sticking her tongue out at her when Azula skipped away. 

Stupid Fire Nation. 

~*~ 

Katara didn’t know what to expect as she tried not to squirm in the private box that sat over the stage. She felt restless from the long awkward palanquin ride to the theater. Katara nodded and smiled politely as Lady Ursa excitedly went over the program with her. Okay, Katara admitted it. The play did sound interesting. Maybe Zuko was just being dramatic again. And Azula didn’t like anything not related to battle strategy or firebending. 

The lanterns slowly dimmed as the orchestra began to play. 

“I’m glad you’re here.” Zuko whispered in Katara’s ear. “This production makes the play so boring.” 

Katara shrugged while popping more fireflakes in her mouth. 

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. 

~*~

Katara was wrong. 

She was so so wrong. 

The play started off with a long boring monologue about the social rules of dragons, which was strikingly similar to all those dumb manners classes Katara was forced to take. She rolled her eyes. Mind as well be back in the classroom.

Katara heard a low rumbling noise that only seemed to filled their private box. Was it part of the play? It did kind of sound like a dragon. Katara looked at Zuko to find him stealing some of her fireflakes. She immediately smacked his hand causing him to yelp. Ursa shushed both of them. 

The noise continued. 

What was it?! It was starting to drive Katara crazy. 

She kept looking around until she finally spotted Prince Ozai leaning against Lady Ursa with his mouth hanging open. Katara couldn’t help but snicker. Prince Ozai was always so big and scary but now he looked plain silly! 

Lady Ursa gave Katara a pointed glare. She bit her lip and looked down. 

“What’s so funny?” Zuko whispered. 

Katara tilted her head towards his father. A grin started to spread on Zuko’s face as he covered his hand with his mouth. Katara wanted to start laughing again and tried to hold it in which made her want to laugh even harder. 

Azula glared at the two dorks on the other side of her parents. What were they laughing at? She wanted to know too! 

“Psst. What’s so funny! Hey! Pppssstttt!!!” Azula whispered shouted at them. 

“Azula shush!” Zuko hissed. 

“You shush!” 

“Shhh!” 

“Ssssshhhhhhh!!!” 

“Sssssssshhhhhhhhh!!!” 

“Ssssssshhhhhh- “ 

“Enough! Both of you!” Ursa scolded. “That is no way to behave in the theater.” 

The siblings pouted as they leaned back in their seat, waiting for the horrid play to end. Katara wanted to laugh again but did a better job at holding it in this time. 

The giggle fits wore off and she grew bored. They were out of fireflakes and Prince Ozai’s snoring became more annoying than funny. Katara did everything she could think of to entertain herself. She traced patterns on the seat. She counted the beams in the ceiling. She braided Zuko’s phoenix tail five times. She turned the empty fireflake cartons into hand puppets and made them dance. She played about 30 rounds of tic-tac-toe with Zuko on the chair’s arm post. She and Azula made ugly faces at each other, each one getting more and more ridiculous until Lady Ursa told them to stop. 

Nothing helped. 

Katara was still so so so bored bored bored!!! 

She was considering taking a page out of Prince Ozai’s book and napping for the rest of the play when the curtain finally fell and lanterns light up. 

Finally!

Katara leapt out of her seat and applauded. It was over! She was free! 

Nearly the entire audience turned and looked at her. It slowly dawned on Katara that she was the only one clapping. She awkwardly slowed her clap to a stop as Azula hissed at her. 

“It’s just the intermission dummy!” 

“I-I knew that.” 

“I appreciate the enthusiasm, dear but save it for the end.” 

Katara nodded tried to play off the red tint creeping on her cheeks. 

Wait, the play wasn’t over yet?! 

Monkey feathers! 

Lady Ursa woke Prince Ozai up with a quick jab in the chest and told him to take the children to get refreshments while she went to the lady’s room. Prince Ozai growled and left, not waiting for the children. Great, he was back to being scary. Katara definitely liked him better when he was asleep. 

The children ran after him, grateful to be out of those stiff chairs after so long. There was hardly anyone in the halls, so a game of chase quickly broke out. They ran around and under statues, quietly laughing before coming to a screeching stop when Prince Ozai turned around. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. 

“Go ahead and get it out your system.” 

The children nervously glanced at each other before returning to their game, squealing louder this time. 

Ozai groaned as he downed a glass of Fire Whiskey. 

He hated Ember Island theater visits. If the children wore themselves out now, maybe he could get some decent sleep without hearing their snickering every five seconds. 

~*~ 

Somehow, the second half of the play was more boring than the first. The action scenes were dull. The lines were cheesy and poorly delivered. Everything was just bad.

Katara felt her head nod. She was tired from chasing Zuko and Azula all through the halls then helping them hide a charred painting one of them accidently burned before Prince Ozai found out. She still couldn’t get a straight answer on who the real culprit was. 

Zuko was already asleep with his head resting on Lady Ursa’s lap. Even Azula was curled up next to Prince Ozai presumably asleep too. Katara leaned against Zuko, using his back as a pillow and fell into a dreamless sleep.

~*~  


The actors came to the stage and did a final bow as Ursa clapped excitedly. Another wonderful play! After all these years, it still managed to amaze her. 

She turned to wake her husband only to see the children had fallen asleep as well. It was sweet really but they missed the play! Not to mention, everyone decided to use her as pillow. 

“Wake up, darlings! The play is over.” 

Ozai, only half awake, moved to nuzzle the back of her neck. Okay not in front of the children! Ursa yanked his beard jolting him awake which startled the others and caused Zuko to fall off his chair. 

“What?!” Ozai hissed, resisting the urge to rub his chin. 

“Is it over?” 

“Finally!” 

“Ow…” 

Ursa closed her eyes and sighed. Why did no one seem to appreciate the arts anymore? 

“Katara dear, what did you think?” Ursa asked the young waterbender curiously. “What was your favorite part?” 

Katara froze, mind suddenly going blank. She glanced behind Lady Ursa where Azula ran her finger across her neck in a slicing motion and Prince Ozai and Zuko stared with the same bored expression. Some help they were. 

“I liked the part when… they… “ Katara racked her brain to remember something. Anything! “…fell in love?” 

Lady Ursa urged her to continued. 

“Yes, when they fell in love… amongst themselves… as dragons…” 

“And?” 

“And… it was… good?” 

Ursa placed her head on her forehead and sighed. 

Why did she even bother?

**Author's Note:**

> Katara applauding at the wrong time was inspired by a scene in The Karate Kid 2010 movie. 
> 
> Poor girl. I feel for her.


End file.
